The Marigny Opera Ballet is premiering two new, original dance performances over the next two weekends that feature the music of popular bilingual Louisiana band Sweet Crude.
The unusual combination came together thanks to the dance company’s artistic director, Diogo De Lima, who is a big fan of the New Orleans-based band launched by powerhouse vocalist Alexis Marceaux and multi-instrumentalist Sam Craft in 2013. Both adventurous and accessible, the band alternates English and Louisiana French lyrics and doesn’t typically use guitars; percussion, violin and keyboards dominate the sound. Sweet Crude’s catalog includes the 2020 national release “Officiel//Artificiel” on Verve Forecast.
“I listened to them, and I fell in love with their music,” said Dave Hurlbert, the ballet’s co-founder and executive director of the Marigny Opera House. “They have a wide variety of what they do in all kinds of genres.”
To go along with the only-in-Louisiana music, the Marigny Opera Ballet commissioned works from choreographers Shane Urton and Amalia Najera that feature seven dancers.
Najera’s ballet will lead off the evening with her original piece titled “Un Autre Soir,” French for “Another Night” that includes seven songs by Sweet Crude. Following a 15-minute intermission will be Urton’s ballet, “Homecoming,” with five songs by Sweet Crude.
Urton, a native of North Carolina now living in Belgium, is affiliated with that country’s Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. Over his 16-year career, he has performed with the Joffrey Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet and other companies throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Shane Urton
Now, “semi-retired as a performer and focusing mainly on choreographing,” Urton is looking forward to his New Orleans debut.
“We introduced him to Sweet Crude, and he began listening to their music and he liked it very much,” Hurlbert said.
His piece“Homecoming” is not a narrative work and focuses on “opposing directions, wanting to go one way but feeling the pull from other directions.
“So, in the material, it’s considered like another layer of exploring this tension between melancholy and optimism,” Urton said. “These two senses of direction are in conflict in the body.”
Lima taught Najera in his position as a dance professor at Tulane University. She had choreographed a Verismo Opera performance of “The Maid of Orleans” at the Marigny Opera House in January.
“It was a sensation,” Hurlbert said.
Amalia Najera
“So we talked to Sweet Crude and asked if they could do the second ballet to some of the hits that were already on their albums,” Hurlbert explained. “They liked the idea, and we commissioned them for this production as well.”
Najera explained that the title of her piece comes from one of the newer releases from Sweet Crude that will be performed. The theme revolves around a swamp environment.
“The idea of the title is to make you think of how lucky we are to live in New Orleans and in a swamp environment where it isn’t just another night,” Najera continued. “The swamp is very vibrant and active. It may be just another night everywhere else in the world, but here in Louisiana, it’s a living and vibrant ecosystem, full of life.”
The seven dancers taking part in the performances are Edward Spots, Lauren Guynes, Kennedy Walker, Allyssa Nelson, Chloe Roberts, Nicholas Buynitzki and Claudio Caverni. The dancers’ costumes were designed by Magdalene Paris, and Tammy Srinivas is the production’s lighting designer.
LOUISIANA DANCES!
WHO: Marigny Opera Ballet
WHAT: Premieres of two new works accompanied by indie group Sweet Crude
WHEN: 8 p.m. March 13-15 and March 19-22
WHERE: Marigny Opera House, 725 St. Ferdinand St., New Orleans
TICKETS: $40-$75
INFO: (504) 948-9998; marignyoperaballet.org
Keith Spera contributed to this story.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nola.com ’
